


Training in Progress...

by ImperfectOrphanage



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-21 10:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10683411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectOrphanage/pseuds/ImperfectOrphanage
Summary: Becoming a Composer was much like taking on a new job. There were certain criteria which needed to be met and certain skills to be learned in order to fulfill the requirements of being a demi-god.For all of this, Joshua never expected to be enrolled in college with a couple of strange characters.





	1. Chapter 1

Joshua wasn’t sure what to expect after dethroning the current Composer of Shibuya. He had made the final blow, and the world around him wavered and fell into darkness. In darkness he floated. His watch had stopped and as far as he could tell, so had his heart. The silence in the dark was deafening, and just before Joshua feared he might go insane, his legs dangled and landed on a solid floor.

It was still dark, but there was light up ahead. Joshua could hear voices echoing toward him and he followed the light and sound until hundreds of people filled his mind with thoughts and feelings. Just beyond the bubble of light he could see a collection of young people. Some were around his age, others were slightly older, and only a couple of those gathered were much older.

There were angels with bright auras and golden crowns on their heads. Men and women in white business suits discussed things in a language Joshua couldn’t understand. He watched the people walk by before pressing his hand against the bubble of light. It snapped, and he sucked in a breath as suddenly his heart beat furiously against his chest.

“Shibuya, Chile, you’re late,” a severe looking…well, Joshua couldn’t tell if it were male or female…stood in front of those collected and tapped a clipboard, “Kentucky Region Two is the only one left.”

A sudden squeal and what must have been Kentucky fell to the ground in the middle of the group. She stood up, dusted herself off, and gave a shy smile to those she’d almost landed on. Her entire demeanor was soft and sweet, and she smiled at Joshua.

“Shibuya, Kentucky, and Chile, you are all assigned to the last room. Perhaps you should think about arriving on time. Everyone who has their room assignments, follow the man behind me. For those who do not, you have been given a special place, and you will come with me.”

Joshua frowned as the group parted and the ones following the man were in groups of two.

All except for the last three, Joshua included.

“So!” Chile slapped a hand on Joshua’s back. “What’s shakin’?”

Joshua narrowed his eyes. “I beg your pardon?”

“Y’know, how goes it? I’m Rene,” he said, shoving his hand into Joshua’s, “and I’m from Chile.”

“I heard as much,” he replied, still unnerved.

The man from Chile was not too much older than Joshua and had a shock of orange hair mixed with dark brown. He had a wide, open mouthed grin and multiple piercings on his face and ears. The young woman next to them, looked young, but her eyes were old and her exact age was hard to pinpoint. She smiled, not near as wide as Chile, and dipped her head. Eye contact wasn’t her strong suit and it showed. Joshua noticed she was uncomfortable and tugging at her clothes as if to hide. Whereas Chile was tall and slender, Kentucky was short and round. She carried herself well, however, and the weight made her appear soft and easy to hold.

“I,” he said, softly, “am Yoshiya Kiryu. You may call me Joshua.”

“Yep yep,” Rene said.

“Oh, right,” Kentucky frowned, “uh…you can call me anything. I don’t really care.”

Joshua tilted his head. “That seems…odd.”

“It’s just, my name is kinda boring and stupid and I don’t care what people call me because I’ve had a lot of names over the years and they’re all better than what I have and as long as I know someone is talking to me I answer and it doesn’t matter as long as you don’t call me it.”

The two boys stared at her.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry I tend to ramble when I’m nervous and I’m really nervous right now and I don’t know what’s going on and I didn’t think I’d actually make it so I didn’t really plan ahead I was just going to talk to the guy and then this happened and-“

Joshua slapped a hand over her mouth.

“Sorry,” she said against his fingers.

“Do not apologize for who you are,” he said, and continued to follow the line of people until they were the only three left.

At the end of a long hallway of doors, they were staring at a door in the middle of the hall, on a wall that most likely should have been a stairwell or elevator. The man in charge dangled three electronic keys in front of them and they all held a hand out to take one.

“Room 404,” the man said. “I think it fits.”

Joshua watched the man walk away while Rene made faces behind his back. He quirked an eyebrow at the room number and Kentucky smiled.

“404 file not found,” she said. “I guess it does apply to us. We’re misfits.”

“I am not a misfit,” Joshua argued. He put the key in the door and it clicked open. “I haven’t seen such technology except for in high end companies.”

Rene bounded into the room. “I guess these angels are on the up and up.”

The room was dark. Kentucky fumbled for a light switch and when it flickered on they realized why they had been given the room.

“This is not a room,” Kentucky said.

“No, I guess it’s more of a state of mind,” Joshua replied.

“I’ve seen worse,” Rene offered.

The three of them took stock of the one room living area and the bathroom off to the side. It was basically a box with a wide window and absolutely no furniture. It appeared to have been used for storage, and it smelled of mop water and cleaning products. The floor was a mess of carpet squares and the ceiling lacked a certain dry quality.

“It’s a fucking dump,” Kentucky stated, matter of fact. “I guess we can clean it up but what the flying hell did we do to get this?”

Joshua shrugged. “We were late.”

“Fuck,” she growled, kicking a carpet square. “I guess the first order of business is cleaning up and finding where we’re supposed to sleep.”

“Ah, about that,” Rene interjected. He had a pamphlet in his hands. “Welcome to the College for Composer Training. There will be no hand holding here. If you want to spruce up your room, you will need to acquire certain skills. Please see the list of classes in the back of this pamphlet.”

Joshua snatched the paper away and flipped to the back. A comically large list fell to the floor and they stared at it as if it were Noise.

“They cannot be serious.”

Kentucky rolled the list up. “Ah, here it is-music training one-oh-one, how to create objects from pure energy and music. I guess we’ll have to go there first.”

“Damn. I’m starving,” Rene said, “I didn’t eat before this.”

Again, Kentucky flipped through the list and frowned. “Uh…you’re going to hate this but…we have to make our own food.”

“I can cook,” Joshua offered. “I know-“

“No. No, you don’t understand,” she argued. “We have to _make_ our food. From the air.”

The two boys stared at the paper along with Kentucky.

“Well,” Rene finally threw his arms up, “no time like the present. Oi, before I forget, I mean, I know we know each other’s names but…what do you want to be referred to as?”

Joshua was quite confused. “What do you mean?”

Kentucky patted him on the back. “You know, are you a boy, a girl, or something else? I’m not really one thing or the other so I don’t care. Just no calling me it.”

“You really hate that don’tcha?” Rene grinned. “I’m a boy, obviously. But I don’t mind tossing around with either sex. I like girls the best if they’ve got nice breasts.”

Joshua rubbed the bridge of his nose. Better to get it over with, he assumed. “I am whatever you’d wish to call me. It would be easier to use him and he. I honestly have no formal sexual experience, but I wouldn’t mind either or both.”

“Oh, wow. I’m an outlier,” Kentucky giggled. “I’m not really interested in either. It kinda freaks me out to be honest. I mean, ew, sex. Bleh.”

Joshua couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Understandable. We should probably go to class.”

“Oh! Before I forget, how old are you guys?”

“Fifteen,” Joshua said.

Rene snorted. “I’m seventeen. Ha, I’m older than you.”

Kentucky was silent for a long moment before she shyly whispered, “I’m uh, I’m in my thirties.”

“The fuck?” Rene tilted his head. He looked at Kentucky’s face and finally, without warning, squeezed both of her large breasts in his hands. “You’re still hot.”

Joshua blinked. He half expected Kentucky to smack the hell out of Rene, but she merely shrugged.

“Hey, if you want them you can have them. I hate my boobs.”

“Why,” Joshua whispered, “am I here with you two?”

“Because you were late,” they both said in unison.

Joshua was beginning to question his overthrowing the Composer. 


	2. Chapter 2

Seven days. It had been just short of a week and already the three of them wanted to clock out early and go back home, even if it meant Erasure. The only saving grace was that the other students were having the same struggles, though they appeared to have beds in their dorms. Joshua, Rene, and Kentucky had been sleeping in random locations as the floor was disguisting and smelled of wet carpet. Rene took the counter in the kitchen. Kentucky took the bathtub. Joshua, well, Joshua slept on the windowsill.

It was wide enough for him to toss a blanket over it and lay uncomfortably spread half in, half out. Underneath was light and sound, and Joshua often wondered what it would be like to fall into the light.

“Time to get up!”

The Resident Advisor of the dorms knocked a spoon against a pan to wake the entire hall up. Today was Monday, and the classes they had were the most important. The general idea of how to make things exist had only been touched on but not performed. This week, however, they were going to have hands on work and Joshua couldn’t wait.

Kentucky slid from the bathroom freshly washed and dressed. At least the school of sorts had uniforms for the Composers in training. She wore the trouser uniform along with Rene, but Joshua, he decided to try the skirt. It was comfortable and breezy, and he found it quite freeing.

“My turn,” Joshua said. He slipped into the bathroom to take care of his necessaries before Rene began to pound on the door. It didn’t take long for Joshua to prepare for the day, but Rene, he often took thirty minutes to do so.

On the other hand, the guy could fall asleep in two seconds.

They left the dorm together, one after the other, and walked down the hall behind the others before filtering into the main classroom. It was large and white, and it could seat far more than the amount they were currently. At the front of the class was a wide monitor and a teacher. Next to the rather prim and proper teacher was an assistant, and she was bubbling over with happiness.

“Today,” the assistant said, “we are going to learn how to make things from energy.”

The classroom filled with sighs and a series of thank the lord in different languages. Joshua leaned back in his chair and Rene did the same. Kentucky, however, was busy taking notes and reading from a book she’d borrowed from one of the teachers.

“First,” the teacher said, “we are going to learn where the energy comes from. If you will.”

“Of course, ma’am,” the assistant replied, bouncing to the side door of the room. She opened it up and waved in a series of people looking rather out of it. “There should be enough for all of us. We’re going to take turns, starting with the back row to the front.”

Joshua narrowed his eyes. He leaned over to Kentucky. “Are those Players?”

She glanced up for one second before returning to the book. “Yep. We’re going to Erase them.”

“What?!” Rene squealed. The others looked at him and he laughed nervously.

The assistant clapped her hands and motioned for the back row to come forward an attempt to Erase one of the Players. Everyone watched as one Composer out of five managed to do so. Of the other four, three couldn’t stomach it and had to leave. The last was unable to do it, and she was asked to sit to the side until the class was over. She would need additional training.

“Next row,” the assistant chimed.

It was Joshua’s row. The three of them, along with around six others, walked to the front of the room to stand in front of the rather souless individuals. Each of them were allowed one Player, and Joshua stood in front of a ragged looking girl with blonde hair and green eyes. She was staring into nothing, but the second he touched her, every detail of her life flooded into Joshua.

_Please don’t kill me!_

His hand snapped back. He glanced to Rene and frowned when he saw the boy holding a ball of light in his hand. On the other side was Kentucky, and she was having far too much fun exploring. From the clothes to the hair, she fiddled with it all, before finally putting her forehead to the Player’s. Joshua could see the music swirling around her and she smiled even as the Player begged not to be Erased.

_Please don’t kill me!_

Joshua took a deep breath. He shoved his hand into the Player’s chest and felt around for the core of her energy. It was sharp and heavy, and he squeezed his hand around it until the music popped and flowed into him from the tips of his fingers. He absorbed every note, and in the end he had nothing left to hold.

In the span of time it took him to do so, he noticed Kentucky was having difficulty pulling the music into her soul. The notes danced around her in little shadows and as Joshua watched, he saw small rat-like Noise running along her arms and head. She laughed, and the Noise squeaked.

One of the Noise noticed Joshua and it leapt from Kentucky to Rene to Joshua. It curled around his neck and nibbled at his ear. Joshua couldn’t help but giggle.

“W-well…what do you know? Room 404, you’ve shown us the three ways to utilize a Player. Kentucky, you’ve used a Player to call Noise. Rene, you’ve created energy from a Player, but you haven’t quite used it yet. Joshua, you absorbed the energy to increase your own power.” The assistant smiled at the others and shook her head. “Come on, now, you can do better. Next row, please!”

“Room 404,” the teacher said, “you may take a short break from class.”

Joshua glanced at his friends. They nodded and the three of them left the room to sit outside in the hall and talk about what they had done. It was awkward to think on how they easily crushed the existence of a fellow human being. Joshua didn’t like to think about it. Rene didn’t seem to think about it at all as he attempted to turn the globe of energy into a pizza. Kentucky was still giggling at the Noise on her head and shoulders, but her words were calming to Joshua.

“We didn’t kill them,” she explained, holding a mouse Noise on her palm. “The Players were already dead and they agreed to do this. They agreed to the Game and they lost. Using their energy is a blessing to their soul because if you think about the amount of people who die everyday, they’re getting a chance at a new life in a new form.”

“I certainly hope,” Joshua stared at his hands, “Rene fails in making a pizza out of his.”

“Hey. I’m famished. It’s not like it’s cannabalism or anything.”

“No,” Kentucky laughed, “then’d we’d be eating Spam.”

Both boys glanced at her oddly.

“Uh…look it up somewhere.”

Rene grumbled. He stared at the energy and glared at it until the vein in his temple began to pulse and his face turned red. The globe of energy exploded into light, and thousands of sparkles fluttered around the three of them. Once the light faded, he cried in triumph at the food he’d made.

It wasn’t a pizza, but it was edible. He split it three ways and they said prayers in their respective religions before chowing down.

Joshua hadn’t eaten in over a week and the lump of suspiciously cheesy tomato made his stomach feel full and his muscles warm. Composers didn’t need food, but by God they hadn’t learned to control the basics of human needs.

“Rene,” Kentucky held her hand out, “do you want one? They’re fuzzy.”

“Huh, I guess so. I shared mine,” he said. The black shadow of a rat with silver hands and feet hopped onto Rene’s shoulder. “Aren’t these, y’know, wrong?”

“They’re Taboo. I asked a teacher and he said it was alright so long as they didn’t leave the Higher Plane after we graduate. It’s okay. I have plans for them.”

“Should I ask?” Joshua reached up to scratch the rat on his head. “Are you going to train them?”

She had a playful glint in her eyes. “Something like that.”

“Room 404, please return to the class,” the assistant called from the doorway.

The three of them, along with their Taboo Noise pets, reentered the classroom and remained until the school day came to a close. In the end, the three of them had enough knowledge to make one bed and two chairs, but at least they had somewhere to sleep. Joshua took the left side of the bed, Rene took the middle, and Kentucky curled on the right.

As the light beyond their window dimmed to a soft, star filled sky, Joshua lay sleepless. Next to him, Rene was making noises in a foreign language while getting a bit too close to Kentucky. She was far too out of it to argue, and she giggled as Rene wrapped around her. Joshua shook his head, rolled to his side, and smiled as he saw a shadow standing a few feet away.

He wasn’t sure who it was, but it made him feel safe, and he quickly joined the others in sleep.


	3. Intermission

It was somewhere in the middle of the third week when the trio were able to eat a lavish meal of fries, chili dogs, and an actual pizza. They still hadn’t attempted to make furniture for the room. Aside from cleaning it and ridding it of the smell, they put their own touches on the room. Kentucky brought Noise and plants. Joshua drew on the walls. Rene stocked the kitchen with delicious things and had an affinity for perfumes. They still shared the same creaking bed every night around eight o’clock.

While attempting to sleep, they would ask each other questions. Who were you before, why did you want to take the position, what are your plans for the future…etc. It was during one of these sessions of inquiry that Joshua finally asked something that was bothering him.

“Tell me, Kentucky, why are you region two?”

“Huh?” She rolled onto her side and wrapped an arm around her pillow. “Kentucky is split into five parts, and I’m in the central region.”

Joshua hummed. “Chile is far larger than we are and yet he has no regions.”

“Oh, right,” Rene laughed. “Yeeeeaaahhh…about that. We’ve got twenty or so positions. Y’see, I’m the Composer, but there’s my Producer, my Arranger, my Conductor, my Director, a Personnel Officer, and a _fuck ton_ of Reapers. There’s even positions I haven’t filled yet, and positions that haven’t really done much since we’ve gone computerized. That reminds me. We’ve got sixty Data Entry Clerks. It’s like a company.”

“Interesting…however, I have far more people than Kentucky,” Joshua said. He stared at Kentucky, and Rene peeked over Joshua’s shoulder.

Kentucky’s face went red and she tucked her head under the covers. “Look, I have to work with farm animals and crops. I don’t have a Conductor and I only have five Reapers. The only partner I have is my Producer and we’ll have to go around making sure everything is hunky-dory. He said I might have…ten Games a year. I have the Amish in my region. Do you know how hard it’s going to be to explain the Game to people who barely use technology? Not to mention the fucking melting pot of other people I have to think about. They don’t speak the same language and they’re expected to work together? I was only going to ask the Composer to change some shit but nooooo he was done with it all and threw the damn crown at me.”

The rambling, almost incoherent words made Joshua laugh sharply. He covered his mouth and waved his other hand to calm Kentucky as she narrowed her eyes. “No,  no, it’s not you, dear. It’s just…you must have a far more interesting job than Rene and I.”

“Interesting? The only reason I was there was because I saw shit going down and the tiny city I lived in-which is only a city because it has a council-was beginning to fall apart. There were all these empty storefronts in the historic district and every day more places closed. I hated seeing the place just…crumple.”

Joshua elbowed Rene when the boy tried to place a leg over his. He propped his head up on his hand and sighed. “You saw the Game?”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“Uh, no,” Rene said. His arm wrapped around Joshua’s waist. “I only found out after I got hit by a car and dragged for three blocks.”

The other two winced.

“How’d ya die, J-J?” Rene asked, pressing a bit too close to him.

He shrugged and ignored the touch. “I shot myself.”

“I feel you,” Kentucky said, rolling to her back.

“Oh? You did as well?” Joshua relaxed back on his pillow.

“No,” she said softly, “I didn’t. I fought. I didn’t want to die…but I didn’t want to fade away.”

Rene made an inquisitive noise.

Joshua watched the minute changes in Kentucky’s features.

“I don’t really want to go into details. Let’s just say I got hit by a car. It’s kinda right.”

“As you wish,” Joshua said. He moved to his back and stared at the ceiling where a bioluminescent bat Noise hung from the plaster. Kentucky had made a few of them and they lit the room up at night.

Rene finally flopped back down on his back and growled. “Ugh, you guys got me down.”

“Sorry,” Kentucky said. “There’s a girl down the hall who’s into you.”

“Really?” He perked up. “What room?”

“398,” Joshua said. “Honestly, you didn’t know? She brought you cookies.”

“Man, I gotta get me some of _those_ cookies,” he laughed. “I’ll see you losers later.”

Kentucky leaned up over the headboard-as the bed faced the window from the middle of the room-and waved as Rene hurried out of the room in nothing but a t-shirt and boxers. She curled back down to the bed and stared at Joshua for a full minute.

“Good night, Kentucky.”

“Jessica,” she said. “Don’t tell anyone.”

He smiled, brushed a finger over Kentucky’s cheek, and closed his eyes. “Not a soul.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To surskitty, thank you for your comment. I hadn't really thought about it as most of my writing is spur of the moment and I don't always have the forethought to research.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance if there are any errors. Please let me know if I need to tweak something. I've been off writing for a bit and it messes with my memory of events.

“Seven days and seven weeks? I thought it was six weeks of training?”

Joshua looked up at Kentucky. She was currently folding laundry to save on energy, and Rene was in the kitchen cooking something decidedly spicy. It filled the air with the sharp scent of random herbs, and it had an undertone of meat and cheese. Joshua wasn’t much for spices, but after living with his two roomates for almost four weeks, he had begun to enjoy the taste. His favorite was Rene’s chili, as it was an old recipe and it-as Rene said-stuck to the ribs.

“I suppose,” Joshua finally said, “the last week would be on the job training.”

She made a face, folded a sweater, and moved on to the underclothes. “I guess that’s alright. Usually, in America, when you get a career job they train you for six weeks and you’re expected to know everything immediately.”

“I would agree to the harshness, but in Shibuya you are expected to know before you are hired.”

“Don’t look at me,” Rene said from the stove, “I ain’t had an actual job outside of the store my grandparents own.”

Kentucky shrugged and continued folding while humming a song familiar to Joshua. It was one of the hymns he’d sung in choir when he was just a boy of six. His mother used to tell him how beautiful he sounded and the memory of his late mother made him heartsick. Instead of letting it get to him, he began to sing, softly at first. His voice rose and soon all three of them were singing the same song.

At the last note, Rene whistled. “Damn, Josh, I didn’t know you’d be an angel. Hell, I didn’t know you’d be a Catholic.”

“I didn’t know Kentucky-“

“I’m not. I’m kinda Catholic if you count that the Methodists _came_ from Catholism. Hell, we have these things we’re supposed to say at certain events and stuff, and it often says in it ‘and the holy Catholic church’. However,” she placed the clothes in three separate baskets, “if you say you’re an offshoot of Catholism, it pisses the Methodists off.”

“Oh? How fun,” Joshua said with a smile. “I suppose you don’t do the rosary and such?”

“Nope. There’s not a lot of Mary and Saints stuff. Just…basic religion.”

Rene clapped his hands. “Alrighty! Dinner is served.”

“Does it have vegetables in it?” Kentucky asked, making a disgusted face. She hated most cooked vegetables though she didn’t mind many raw ones. The girl would eat baby spinach on sandwiches but she’d be damned before eating cooked spinach.

“It’s got beans.”

Again, she made a face, but it was the only thing they had to eat, and it was Rene’s day to cook.

Joshua rose from the bed with an elegant curl of his spine. He placed a hand on Kentucky’s back and nudged her toward the kitchen to get a bowl. “Now, now, it won’t hurt you to eat a bean or two.”

“The only beans I like are green beans and coffee beans. Oh, and jelly beans in moderation.”

Rene and Joshua shared a laugh before the former began to spoon a spicy dish of beans, meat, and an assortment of peppers and cheeses into bowls. It was thick and steaming hot, and the smell was simply divine to Joshua. He said a quick prayer and dug in with a long handled spoon.

It was delicious. The meat mixed with a hint of paprika, and the peppers were warm but not hot enough to burn his mouth. It urged him to continue eating, and he quickly finished the bowl before grabbing a cold glass of milk from the pitcher in the fridge.

“A culinary delight, my friend.”

“Yeah,” Rene said with a fist bump into the air, “I’m glad ya liked it. KY’s got dessert.”

Joshua purred. “I wonder what it will be?”

“You might want to let your stomach empty a bit. And,” she pulled a pie from under a wooden lid, “you’re going to want to cut tiny slices.”

He leaned over the pie along with Rene and they inhaled. The sickly sweet scent of chocolate mixed with peanut butter tickled his nose and he had to lean back lest he get a sugar rush. “My, what is it?”

“Peanut butter fudge pie in an oreo crust. I won’t eat any of it. It’s too rich for my blood, but everyone says it’s good. One person I worked with in the past said it was good enough to slap her momma.”

“Is that a Southern coloquilism?”

“Mmhm,” she said, slicing the pie into small, inch long cuts. “Just like, aw, bless his heart.”

Rene snorted. “Hell, I’ve heard that one.”

“Why is it humorous?” Joshua sipped at his glass of milk. Even a few steps away he could smell the rich pie and it made his stomach bounce in anticipation.

Kentucky giggled. “You say that when you’re covering up something rude. Like…oh, that boy is one shy of a six pack, _bless his heart_. Or, that girl rides her bike all over town, _bless her heart_. It’s a rude cover.”

“Well,” Joshua said, “bless your heart.”

She laughed and Rene again, snorted. “I don’t think you get it, J.”

He simply smiled, finished his glass of milk, and started on the sink full of dishes.

Class resumed tomorrow morning, and they were going to learn about paperwork. It was one of the classes Joshua did not look forward to, as they would be assigned numbers and they were expected to remember the codes and details of every little thing.

He wondered, while scrubbing a particularly nasty pot, whether or not they would keep in touch. After the classes were over and the training had concluded in their respective regions, would they email each other or write letters? Would they call each other every other weekend to check in?

Looking back at the two of them, Rene with his finger in the pie and Kentucky smacking him with a serving wedge, he felt a sinking dispair in his heart.

 _Please_ , he thought, _don’t let me lose them_.

\---

Graduation came, and there were only a handful of students remaining. Of the crowd Joshua had seen in the beginning, there were eight. His friends and him, along with five others scattered over the Earth. Joshua stood in a row with the others in the front of the class and the teacher appeared to be proud as she began to pin ornaments to the newly crowned Composers.

Joshua received a gold pin with wings. He had been quite good at Noise and keeping his frequency high but hidden in the RG.

Kentucky received a small, silver pin with an odd design on it. She had been great at all things except for taking a Noise form and keeping her Composer form for too long. It didn’t bother her as she knew there was little chance anyone would make it to her.

Rene was bouncing with excitement as he received a diamond shaped pin with a real diamond in the middle of it. He had excelled-in the end-at everything a Composer should be able to do.

The others had their skills displayed in pins as well, and the teacher handed everyone a diploma and a series of books to assist with the next week. It would be on the job training with their Producers or Conductors depending on the location, and the students were allowed to go wherever they wished for one night, as they would soon be tethered to their respective UGs.

Joshua didn’t like the idea of being kept from his friends. There was online chat-a new feature not yet available to the RG-and phone calls, along with handwritten letters. During the year there would be parties in the Higher Plane, and the occasional meet and greet.

Either way, it made Joshua feel lonely. He put on his best smile for the others as they collected their things into balls of energy and kept them in their music. It was strange to be able to keep almost an entire room in the form of imagination. Joshua hadn’t gotten used to it, and it felt heavy on his form.

“So, where to? Or,” Kentucky said, collecting her Noise pets, “do you guys want to split up now and visit separate places? There’s an entire list of places I wish I could go, but I don’t want to pick one over the other or I’ll feel regret. What about you?”

Rene shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to eat my way through Italy.”

“It would be interesting,” Joshua said, “since we don’t need to worry about being full.”

“I don’t know,” Kentucky said, shouldering the one thing she wouldn’t take in her energy. It was a bag containing the books and diploma, along with a few gifts from the other students they’d bought in the Higher Plane shopping center. “Whatever floats your boat.”

Joshua exhaled. He reached out, hands shaking. “I will miss you two.”

The Composers reached out as well and they stood with their hands linked. Rene smiled, Kentucky grinned brightly, and Joshua tried to smile as well.

“It’s gonna suck,” Rene said. “But hey, we’ve got an eternity to make new friends.”

“But we’ll always be friends,” Kentucky replied. “Even when we find new people, we will _always_ be friends no matter what, right?”

They all agreed. Rene tugged the two of them into a tight embrace and Kentucky kissed the cheeks of the boys in turn. It was a long moment before they decided to take their final outing in Italy.

The night didn’t last long enough. The next day came and they said their good-byes.

Joshua arrived home in Shibuya and found Sanae waiting for him. The Producer smiled and welcomed Joshua into the Room of Reckoning. It didn’t feel comforting at all with the way the past Composer had decorated, and to keep his mind off of the loss he’d suffered, he threw his energy into redecorating the throne room, the Pad, and the new apartment he’d been given in addition to the room off to the side of the Pad where he could crash.

“Are ya sad, J?”

He looked up from the magazine of different doors for the apartment and gave a weak smile. “Sanae, life is about loss and gain. Where would my city be if not for both of those things? Besides, we can keep in contact and I’m sure we’ll remain friends.”

“It’s still hard,” he said, leaning on a broom.

Joshua tilted his head. “Why are you doing it manually?”

“Sometimes, J, it’s nice ta keep in touch wit’ yer roots.”

“I suppose,” he replied, not really caring. “I could choose white…but I like blue…”

\---

The Long Game was over and Neku had moved in with Joshua to assist with rebuilding the city as his new Conductor. The times had changed with the popularity of the internet, and the classes for the newcomers to the UG were done online. Neku had lamented about the-as he put it-boring ass information, but he excelled in many things.

It made Joshua think about his friends. He still had photographs sitting on a table in his apartment of the two of them. Kentucky was in a simple wood frame with a single line of gold on the outside. Rene was in an etched silver frame with diamonds on the corners.

The former had been overthrown not too long before Joshua’s three week Game, and the latter was still working in the UG, but he had decided to step down from Composer as he enjoyed the nightlife of a Harrier Reaper. They still kept in touch, somewhat, but Kentucky had moved into the Higher Plane and she rarely had the time to send missives about the goings on above.

“Hey, Josh?”

He paused in his work. “Yes, Neku?”

Leaning against the back of the chair, Neku pointed at the broom in Joshua’s hands. “Why are you sweeping the floor? Can’t you just poof it away?”

“Sometimes, Neku, dear,” Joshua continued, “it’s nice to keep in touch with your roots.”


End file.
